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George Soros

I’ve been writing here about the sunny outlook for The ADT Corp. stock since the newly independent company began publicly trading last fall after spinning off from Tyco International. But don’t just take my word for it—apparently 10 billionaires also think ADT is a good investment.

ADT got the attention of Investor Gurus Julian Robertson, John Burbank, Dodge & Cox, George Soros, Jean-Marie Eveillard, John Keeley, Mario Gabelli, Steven Cohen, James Barrow, and Paul Tudor Jones--all bought ADT shares for the first time on Dec. 31, 2012, at $48 per share, with a change from average of 14%. Current share price is $49.43. Top buyer Dodge & Cox bought 6,810,838 ADT shares, followed by Jean-Marie Eveillard who bought 1,526,071 shares. At the low-end, Guru Paul Tudor Jones bought new holdings of 10,000 ADT shares. See detailed Guru Trade info here.

A leading provider of electronic security, detection, and monitoring for home and business, ADT features interactive and automated products and services for active people with increasingly mobile lifestyles. The Florida company employs approximately 16,000 people at 200 locations, and serves six million customers. This week ADT announced that its Board of Directors had declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.125 per share of common stock, to be paid on May 15, 2013 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on April 24, 2013.

… GuruFocus performed a thorough financial and performance checkup on ADT and found only one warning sign. The ADT price of $49.43 is close to its one-year high of $49.46.

The ADT Corp., which just became independent in September, says its Pulse product is doing so well that it predicts that recurring revenue will grow by 4.9 percent to 5.2 percent in fiscal year 2013, the company said this week in a report on its Q4 and fiscal year 2012 results.

“We delivered solid recurring revenue growth fueled by the continued success of Pulse in the residential and small business security markets,” ADT CEO Naren Gursahaney said in a statement. “Our focus for 2013 is to deliver meaningful shareholder value by leveraging our competitive strengths to accelerate growth and through the efficient deployment of capital.”

ADT reported that in Q4, recurring revenue was $742 million, up 5.2 percent. The company said that was "driven by 4.4 percent growth in average revenue per customer, which rose to $38.87, and 1.1 percent net growth in customer accounts."

ADT also is initiating a dividend and has a share buyback plan. Here's what Bloomberg News had to say on that this week:

ADT Corp. authorized a $2 billion share repurchase program and initiated a quarterly dividend after investors George Soros and hedge-fund manager Keith Meister called on the home-security company to buy back stock.

The buyback will end in November 2015 and the quarterly dividend will amount to 12.5 cents a share, the Boca Raton, Florida-based company said in a statement today. ADT was spun off from Tyco International Ltd. (TYC) in September.

In October, billionaire Soros joined Meister in urging ADT to buy back about 45 percent of its stock with borrowed money to take advantage of low interest rates after they became the company’s biggest investors. ADT today reported adjusted earnings per share of 43 cents in the fourth quarter ended Sept. 30, matching the average analyst estimate. Recurring revenue rose 5.2 percent to $742 million.

The company has more than 6 million customers in the U.S. and Canada, providing security to homes and businesses with products including the ADT Pulse system.